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Friday, October 2, 2015

Salt Lake Comic Con 2015 Highlights

It’s been a few
months since I last posted here. Much of what’s kept me away has
been busy with lots of different things going on during the summer.
As a result, nearly every time I actually had time to write, I either
lacked the energy to do so, or I experienced writer’s block. And
every time I actually had the energy and knew exactly what I wanted
to write, I just didn’t have the time.

But there’s
nothing like three days of attending a comic book convention to get
me energized to write about my favorite geek-related topics.

Every time I attend
Comic Con in Salt Lake (be it the Salt Lake Comic Con title event or
FanX), it’s a very different experience for me. From one convention
to the next, I might attend different types of panels or go to
spotlights for celebrities from different genres. I might purchase
different types of souvenirs. I may or may not cos-play (and when I
do, how elaborate my costume is may vary). I may spend time geeking
out with different friends. This year at Comic Con was no exception
to the rule.

Rather than doing a
travelogue of sorts, and going through each day in order (as I did in
my report on FanX earlier this year), I’m just going to touch on
the highlights of some of the things I enjoy most about going to
Comic Con.

The first was the
panels. I found the panels to be kind of hit or miss for me this
year. The one I enjoyed the most was titled, “The Flash: Run,
Barry, Run!” This panel discussed the first season of The Flash
TV series, and some thoughts on what the future may hold for the
show. And though I have not yet posted my review of the first season,
I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed it, and am really excited for
the direction the series seems to be heading.

"The Flash: Run, Barry, Run!" Panel, which was the panel I enjoyed the most this year

One of panelists was
a friend of mine, Quinn Rollins, who as a next-door neighbor growing
up, was one of the first people to introduce me to superheroes. He
has also declared himself to be the biggest geek he knows. Though I
would definitely have attended the panel even without him there,
having someone I knew personally on the panel made it even more
enjoyable to attend. I hadn’t been following the trailers and
previews that came out for the second season during the summer, but
just hearing about what might be coming makes me excited for next
week’s season premiere.

The "Disabilities in Pop Culture" PanelAll of the panelists had some personal connection to disabilities

Among the other
panels that I enjoyed were “Disabilities in Pop Culture”
(which featured Jake Dietz, a.k.a. “The Geeky Mormon”, as one of
the panelists) and “The Doctor and Violence” (a Doctor Who panel
that looked at what kind of man the Doctor is, as well as some of his
internal motivations).

"The Doctor and Violence" PanelI enjoyed finally being able to attend a Doctor Who panel and understand what the panelists were talking about

Some of the misses included two of the panel discussions on the
Marvel cinematic universe (the friends I went with, because they
wanted to attend, actually left both panels early out of boredom),
and “The Science of Time Travel.” The latter was a topic that I
find very interesting, but I found the presentation to be rather dry,
and rather than explore the theoretical science behind time travel
that is portrayed in pop culture, spent most of the time discussing
how real life occurrences are like time travel.

The Robby Amell Spotlight Panel

The only celebrity
spotlight panel I went to this year featured Robby Amell. I had
wanted to go to several others, but had conflicts with attending
them. Amell mostly talked about his role as Ronny Raymond/Firestorm
in The Flash, as well as other things related to the
Arrowverse, including how he was originally invited to audition for
the title role of Arrow, but saw the role as a much better fit
for his cousin, Stephen Amell, who ultimately got the role. He also
let us know that Firestorm would continue to be a recurring character
is the early episodes of the second season of The Flash, but
was unwilling to give any spoilers as to what role (if any) he would
be playing in the upcoming Legends of Tomorrow.

My big souvenir from Salt Lake Comic Con 2015A photo with Robby Amell

Unrelated to the
panel, I also paid for a photo op with Robby Amell, which is my “big”
souvenir for this year’s Comic Con. Initially, I was
planning on only getting a limited amount of art this time, as I
really don’t have space to display very much of it, and instead
bought some t-shirts that show off my geeky nature. But as I have
become much more of a Whovian in the past year or so, I wanted to get
some Doctor Who art, and also ended up getting a number of other
prints as well.

I added to my collection of geeky t-shirtsI decided I needed more to stuff to show off my new status as a Whovian

I added to my collection of fan art this year

I only cos-played
one day this year, and I decided to go with a costume I’ve wanted
to try out for several years. On Friday, I went in costume as
Superboy (as he appeared in the comic books from about 2004 to 2012,
as well as the Young Justice cartoon series). The costume was
rather simple, requiring only blue jeans, black shoes, black t-shirt
with a red Superman symbol and using temporary black hair dye. Though
technically not officially part of the costume, I elaborated by
adding a Superman symbol belt buckle. Though only those familiar with
the character and those who knew that my hair was not normally black
were likely to realize I was actually in costume, it worked out well
for me. And I got to be in full costume without getting stopped for
pictures every few minutes (like I did when I cosplayed as Thor at
FanX earlier this year).

Me in my simple, yet full costume as Superboy

And as usual, the
part I enjoyed the most about the convention was getting to spend
time there with friends. Some of my friends really got into it,
cosplaying as different characters every day, while for others, it
was their first time attending, and were just in awe of all there was
to see at the convention.

Me with several of my friends that I geeked out with at Comic Con

Like Joe, attending
Comic Con is a nice diversion from every day responsibilities, where
I can just enjoy my interests, as well as spending time with others
that share them. Though I felt exhausted by the end of the final day
of Comic Con, I had a great experience all three days, and left
looking forward to the next one.

Actually, I think we were probably worn out well before the end of the last day!

The dates for next
year’s FanX were just recently announced as well. And as it turns
out, the first day of it will be on my birthday. So I owe a big thank you to the creators of Salt Lake Comic Con and FanX for
the birthday present!

I also took a lot of pictures, and as I didn't have room to fit all of them earlier in my post, I'll end with a montage of the rest of my pictures from this year's Salt Lake Comic Con.

I had some friends ask me to watch for some of the local artists they knewThis is Chris Bringhurst at his booth in the Artist's Alley

Local artist Kenwood Huh in his booth in the Artist's Alley

Local artist Matt Page was away when I stopped by his booth

One of the vendors sales Minecraft-eque toys

David and Spencer were a couple of my friends that cos-played as different characters each dayOn the first day, they went as the "Gameboy" and Mario